Kiwi Image
GIAG has been involved in the KiwImage all of government satellite acquisition project. This joint government project aims to provide Government agencies with high resolution Digital Globe satellite imagery of the New Zealand mainland, off shore islands, the Ross Dependency and selected South West Pacific Islands.
The New Zealand Defence Force will act as data custodian for the KiwImage imagery and manage the programme of imagery acquisition. An FAQ document is available to give details such as the imagery specifications, costs and other project details.
Running concurrent to the KiwImage project, the Ministry for the Environment is running a separate satellite image acquisition project called LUCAS (Land Use & Carbon Analysis System).
Kiwi Image and Local Government
Regional Groups
Specific to local government agencies under KiwImage is the concept of a Regional deal where "ratepayers only pay once". This means that a Regional Council and the territorial authorities within that Region can group together to save costs. If all of the TA's sign up for KiwImage for example, then the Regional Council will have free access. Alternatively there may be a cost sharing arrangement.
Imagery Trades
Another local government option is for an "imagery trade" with urban aerial photography. GIAG have negotiated an imagery trade scheme (181kb). Under this arrangement, local authorities will be able to trade high resolution aerial photography for KiwImage satellite imagery.
Such trades will be considered on a case by case basis where the value of the aerial photography is considered a fair trade in terms of acquisition date, resolution and coverage. A trade would be advantageous to a local authority which has good aerial photography over urban areas but less coverage over rural areas. The local authority would need to hold copyright over the photography which would then become available to other government agencies signed up for KiwImage and subject to the same distribution restrictions.